Will the 6.00 per qt. of the basic motor oil ever drop to reflect the huge price drop of a barrel of crude?
Think not since cars are going much longer between oil changes and it's just the companies way to keep the profit up.
Just ridiculous to be paying that much for regular non high performance oil!

I doubt the base is a major factor in the price you're paying for engine oil.
The additives and overhead (research/increasing standards) I would guess to be driving costs.
The extended intervals does require better oils as well.
You can save some money by buying bulk 5Gal pails or 55gal drums if you prefer.

The price of a qt always used to be pretty much the same as a gallon of gas since the 60's, always going up, till recently with the crude price going substantially lower.
I think it's just charging what the market will bear, lack of competition & collusion.
Supermarket's off brand oil has been about the same as gasoline, they may price the stuff at cost plus a percentage.

allencr267 wrote:The price of a qt always used to be pretty much the same as a gallon of gas since the 60's, always going up, till recently with the crude price going substantially lower.
I think it's just charging what the market will bear, lack of competition & collusion.
Supermarket's off brand oil has been about the same as gasoline, they may price the stuff at cost plus a percentage.

Check the API rating on that off brand oil. Any time I see oil retail for under $3/quart, it's SB rated.

Just ridiculous to be paying that much for regular non high performance oil!

ALL modern API oils are "high performance oils" relative to what was available 15 years ago. GDI, Turbos, etc are making it necessary to develop higher performing motor oils for even the Soccer Mom SUV.

I have and will continue to use Walmart's house brand, "Tech 2000", or whatever it is called along with their oil filters.

Have used it longer than I care to think about, old man that I have become!

I will add a 1/2 a bottle of good old MMO to top off a fresh oil change, (every 2nd change), and then put the rest of it in my gas tank at my next fill-up.

And I have ran the stuff past 12,000 miles before an oil change only because I was running like 60 to 80 miles round trip daily commuting on the 4-lane. 95 to 98 percent Hwy miles here!!

IMHO, the key to long oil life is to keep your engine warm/hot so that sludge can't form due to, "boiling off", any water condensate and vapors.

pdq67

I prefer Castrol 5w30. It does fairly well in all of the oil tests and has been fine for me for the last 15+ years. O'Reilly's house brand oil is actually produced here in Shreveport, LA at the local Calumet refinery. I've been known to use it, also. It ranks fairly well, usually. It was a Pennzoil refinery a long time ago.

Now that I've been informed about centistoke ratings, I'll be re-evaluating a lot of the oils I prefer to see what they all rank vs known good oils.